Kinshasa, April 27, 2022: On April 12, following the publication of the audit report of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) of the logging industry, Minister of the Environment Eve Bazaiba reportedly announced that: “all the contracts indexed by the IGF we have suspended them until further notice”. According to an examination by Greenpeace Africa, the minister’s act is merely partial and remains incoherent
Ms. Bazaiba has just published an order dated April 5: she has only suspended a small third of the illegal titles listed by the IGF. It is the minimum service for the Congolese people, possibly meant to calm donors and prepare the ground for the lifting of the moratorium on new forest concessions..
Would the minister be confirming the legal status of the titles she chose to ignore, taking the IGF on the wrong foot?
“Minister Bazaiba’s suspension of just 12 of dozens of illegally allocated logging concessions is as strange as a dentist removing a single rotten tooth and leaving bad ones in place,” said Forest Campaigner Serge Sabin Ngwato from Greenpeace Africa. “Minister Bazaiba’s actions must be fully transparent and comprehensive in order to protect the rainforest from environmental criminals and end their impunity,” Ngwato concludes.
When Ms. Bazaiba mentions in her decree the “process of legal review of forest concessions underway at the Ministry of the Environment”, she is not likely to please the PPM – OCA Global consortium committed to this task, financed by the European Union. In a situation note of April 11, 2022, the latter states: “In the unfavourable context that prevailed until the publication of the IGF report, the work of the legal review audit team was considerably affected by the difficulties it has experienced in establishing effective collaboration methods with the public services in charge of monitoring the forest sector (DGFor, DGF and DIAF, in particular), whose active involvement is nevertheless essential to enable the successful completion of this Legal Review”. Recall that this audit mission almost collapsed last year because of Ms. Bazaiba’s stubborn refusal to issue a mission order. Which she ended up doing only two months after a personal intervention by the EU ambassador.
Everything suggests that the ministry prefers to regain control of a process for which it will have the last word on the results to be presented.
It is impossible to know why its decree mentions “conservation forest concessions”: there is not a single one among the twelve suspended titles. Possibly the minister continues to refer to President Tshisekedi’s order last year to suspend the six Tradelink conservation concessions, an order which she executed with a delay that raises questions. Greenpeace Africa recalls that at the time she had just given a boost to the entrepreneurs of this scam – whose concessions have still not been terminated, but only suspended..
Beyond the titles vilified by the IGF that she chose to ignore, there are many other titles that also deserve permanent cancellation. False conservation concessions like those attributed to the Buhendwa establishment, to KFBS / Sodefor, or to Renewable Solutions / Safbois. And of course the slew of logging concessions that still do not have a management plan. Do not forget the bad payers and other “sponsors” of local development. It should also be remembered that the IGF report was unable to examine the case of an industrial cleaning company Groupe Services, which was awarded a fiefdom of almost 800,000 hectares illegally in June 2020.
Greenpeace Africa reiterates its request to President Félix Tshisekedi to order a judicial investigation into those responsible for the looting of the Congolese forest and, if necessary, the lifting of their parliamentary immunity. Minister Eve Bazaiba’s refusal to comply with the President’s order to suspend all “questionable concessions” requires an urgent investigation.
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Raphael Mavambu, Media and Communication Consultant, Greenpeace Africa, [email protected]